Bartholomew Klick, a Pittsburg State University creative writing senior from Kansas City, Kan., has already had some real-world success.

For one thing, he has a story, “Shot by Sniper,” in an anthology titled “Machine of Death.”

“The premise is that there’s a machine that can tell how a person will die, though not when,” Klick explained. “My story is about an officer in the first Iraqi conflict. He knows that he’s going to be killed by a sniper, but goes ahead anyway to rescue men who are pinned down by sniper fire.”

The anthology was edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Malki, and shortly after it was released in October 2010, these three announced “MOD-Day,” encouraging supporters to purchase the book on Oct. 26 in an effort to hit No. 1 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.

The campaign was successful, much to the distress of Fox News commentator/author Glenn Beck, whose book “Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure” also came out on Oct. 26. “Broke” was No. 3 that day.

“He went on a rant and called it part of a ‘culture of death’,” Klick said. “The twist is that nobody dies in my story.”

He said that he was paid $75 for “Death by Sniper,” then another $75.

“They bought foreign language rights and movie rights,” Klick said. “It’s a really nice contract for a writer who’s new. I’ve been writing since I was 14, but this is my first sale. It was a really awesome moment.”

He’s got another story, titled “All Coated in Bonemeal,” coming out in “Arcane.”

“I wrote it in a creative writing class,” Klick said. “It’s about a witch who’s trying to assassinate a prime minister, but the whole story is about how she makes a friend.”

His first story publication, “Photomancer,” was in “Coyote Wild,” an e-zine.

“I write speculative fiction,” Klick said. “I like to write things that are creepy, that when a reader reads it their skin crawls.”

He said that he’s currently working on a story about a pair of eyeballs trying to escape from their owner.

“I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to place that one,” Klick said.

He also writes non-fiction and previously worked at the PSU Collegio as copy editor.

“Once a year they take the newspaper to state and my story about a preacher who came to the campus and yelled at everybody won first place,” he said.

He also writes for Absolute Write on the Internet.

“We have a pretty good job forum and things about how to tell if something is a scam,” Klick said.

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One indication, he said, is who’s paying who for publishing a story or book.

“If you are writing, you should be getting paid for it,” Klick said.

He spent his early years in Pennsylvania, and his family is now in Kansas City, Kan. Klick started working as a CNA when he was a teenager, and now serves as a caregiver for a PSU student. He speaks Spanish and is learning Chinese.

He said that his ultimate goal is to earn his living with his writing, but is also thinking of teaching English in China.

“I think that is getting harder to do, but I might go to Taiwan or Hong Kong instead,” Klick said. “My Mandarin will be kind of useful there.”

He said that the PSU Book Store currently has one copy of “Machine of Death.” It can also be purchased at Amazon.com and machineofdeath.net.